The first round of the Rotax Asia Challenge and Rotax Malaysia Challenge events were held last weekend at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. Despite the track being used for the series in previous years it was new for everyone – because it is now raced anticlockwise. Some drivers realized that the off-season break and change of direction put their neck muscles to the test, and the scorching weather all weekend added to the physical challenge!
Last year’s Junior champion Muhammad Nabil Jeffri made the move to the Senior category and to a new team. All the changes made no difference to his pace as he continued on where he had left off last year – at the very top. Nabil made a clean sweep of the weekend taking pole position and winning all his races. He also set the fastest lap in all but one heat. Defending champion Mikko Nassi took to the track in a Storm kart, and with limited practice time the KRS Racing Team got the kart dialed in and after qualifying in 5th they found more pace and ended the weekend in 2nd place. Andrew Tang took 3rd after a 4th place finish in the Pre-final. Johan Adzmi and Syafiq Ali rounded up the top 5 in the Final. Farriz Fauzy was 6th after a strong 3rd place in the pre-final.
Early Senior front runners Sena Fujita and Mohamad Afiq Ikhwan dropped down the order during the weekend as Sena got caught up in a few incidents and Afiq suffered a puncture in the pre-final.
Nabil has dominated the Junior field over the past few years, so now with him in Seniors the anticipation was tense as to who would take over the top step. It looked like Timothy Yeo was going to be a dominant force as he was in a class of his own in qualifying. Unfortunately he got caught out for a slight technical infringement which meant that he had to start the heats from the very back of the 26 kart field. This put Jazlee Irfan Shah on pole position followed by Calvin Seibl and Yasuo Senna Iriawan. Rahul Raj Mayer qualified in 4th place but quickly found enough pace to get to the front and after taking 1st and 2nd in the heats he won both the pre-final and final. Gilbert Ang took 2nd, followed by Freddie Ang, Calvin Seibl, and Muhammad Danial. Timothy Yeo managed to salvage a 6th place after a disappointing 15th in the pre-final.
MicroMax was a healthy 23 kids battling it out. Indonesian driver Gezha Sudirman took the early initiative in qualifying and maintained his pace for a 3rd in the pre-final after getting back up to 1st in the final. Muhammad Luqman had to settle for 2nd after winning the prefinal. Brendan Seibl improved on his fifth in the pre-final for a 3rd in the final. Perdana Putra Minang was the only driver in the top 5 to keep his starting position after finishing 4th in both the pre-final and final, while James Pull dropped from a 2nd in the prefinal to 5th in the final. The MicroMax championships are probably the most difficult to predict, with drivers even outside the top 5 looking strong enough to put on a strong championship challenge.
The Masters weekend was dominated by Kyle Blockley, as he led most of the race laps during the weekend. His only threat came from Guy Ermer, but with a failing wheel hub in the final he had no chance of challenging for the lead and did good to hang on to 4th place. Another challenge faced by all the masters drivers was a bit of rain in both their heat 1 and final races. In heat 1 the shower late in the race created a few crashes but in the final the masters were more composed and brought their karts back in one piece. Terence Chap drove an impressive final to take 2nd place ahead of Ray Kong, while Freddy Lawan completed his weekend with another trophy for 5th place.
Guy Ermer gave Blackdog Racing a win in the DD2 category, followed by Freddy Lawan, Ray Kong, Siti Shahkirah, and Kelvin Choo. Despite the small field in DD2 to competition was close; all of the fastest laps in the final were within 2 tenths.
To discuss the event in the forums please join this thread. To view full results please go to MyLaps.com. Results summary below:
Senior:
1 MUHAMMAD NABIL JEFFRI
2 MIKKO PETTERI NASSI
3 ANDREW TANG
4 JOHAN BIN ADZMI
5 SYAFIQ ALI
6 MOHAMED FARRIZ FAUZY
7 JAMES LEE KENG CHEONG
8 MOHAMED NASRI NAUFAL
9 TAN WEI RON
10 MOHAMAD AFIQ IKHWAN
Junior:
1 RAHUL RAJ MAYER
2 GILBERT ANG DING FENG
3 FREDDIE ANG DING YU
4 CALVIN SEIBL
5 MUHAMMAD DANIAL
6 TIMOTHY THOMAS YEO REN QUAN
7 JAZLEE IRFAN SHAH
8 EITA SHIMIZU
9 DANIEL WOODROOF
10 GABRIEL ARCADINE D.
MicroMax:
1 GEZHA SUDIRMAN
2 MUHAMMAD LUQMAN HAKIM
3 BRENDAN SEIBL
4 PERDANA PUTRA MINANG
5 JAMES PULL
6 ADAM MUQRI MOHD NOOR
7 RAFIF RABBANI
8 LOW KENT JUN
9 DAIM HISHAMMUDIN
10 JORDAN TAY TI WAN
Masters:
1 KYLE JAMES SPENCER BLOCKEY
2 TERENCE CHAP
3 RAY KONG CHUN KEAT
4 GUY ERMER
5 FREDDY NUMAN LAWAN
6 GARY KOH
7 STEVEN CHEAH
8 LOW TUCK LOONG RAYMOND
9 JONATHAN TAY
10 HILARION ANTHONY
DD2:
1 GUY ERMER
2 FREDDY NUMAN LAWAN
3 RAY KONG
4 SITI SHAHKIRAH SHAHARUL
5 KELVIN CHOO KANG WOEI
Photos by Anas Zakaria RaceRevo.com